Surface Neo & Duo - MS enters the dual screen race
MS today held their fall hardware event in NYC with several interesting releases and announcements.
First the Surface Pro was refreshed to Core i10 and a new Surface Pro X was announced that utilizes a jointly developed ARM processor with Qualcomm called the SQ1 with a 13" screen, LTE support and "flat pen" that can be stored in the keyboard. Think of it as a more next gen Surface Go.
Next was the Surface Laptop 3 which is now available in both 13.3 and 15" models with or without the Alcantra fabric keyboard. The 15" utilizes the AMD Epyc CPU.
All of the above units are available for pre-order today and begin shipping on or about Oct 22. Most likely - all will come with Windows 10 1909 release on them
But the show stoppers were definitely the two dual screen (don't call them foldable) devices the Neo and Duo.
The Neo is a dual screen device with 2 x 9" screens. It will utilize the next gen of Intel CPU/Graphics and has both a magnetically attached pen and keyboard. The keyboard can be used separately from the device or when placed on one of the screens will either A) show a trackpad below when placed near the "hinge" or B) an "wonder bar" that will provide contextual items depending on what app your in when placed at bottom of screen. The Demo was very slick.
The Neo is definitely a radical change to what we think about as a form factor and to me the fulfillment of the Courier concept of nearly 10 years ago. The Neo will also run a new version of Windows 10 called Windows 10X.
Windows 10x has also been called Windows Core or Windows Lite and it really designed for the transition to cloud based computing. While the big call out by some is the removal of Live Tiles from the Start Menu - the bigger change is the disengagement from many of the legacy Windows features/capabilities that have been dragged forward all the way from Windows XP. This should really improve performance, battery life and reduce the impact of updates.
The Duo is another dual screen device - with 2 x 5.6" screens - but this time it's based on the Qualcomm 855 CPU and will run Android. Yes Android. As I wrote about over a year ago - MS has made a big push with android based editions of many of their popular apps and has a tight partnership with Samsung.
Back then I created a MS app driven Android experience on an Nokia 6.2 - so from launcher to Office, OneDrive, etc an all MS experience to try it. Could you live with it - yeah - did it really change my mind about MS in the mobile space - No
Both the Neo and Duo are at least a year away. Some commentators have stated that MS really need the app community to start developing for Windows 10x and dual screen and so the announcements today where to generate interest.
With that said - there are no Windows 10x builds available to the Insider Community at all and so unless your an ISV that posts real interest in Neo for example we may never see it till Fall 2020.
The key to me with Neo and Duo is going to be execution and can MS actually bring both devices to market in a year. And even so will they be reasonably priced and stable.
It hard to believe that the Surface line is nearing it's 8th year of release now being first available in Oct of 2012. I've been pretty critical of the MS Surface line. I have never owned one and for many I know who have they have a real love/hate relationship with them.
MS often would shoot itself in the foot with buggy releases and/or updates, especially to firmware and even with a lot of focus of Windows 10 towards Surface, sometimes it ran it the worst.
But I have to once again applaud MS for pushing the envelope. Even though Windows has become a 2nd class citizen @ MS it's still the all important front end to all the backend Services like O365 and Azure. And yes there are some 900M+ Windows 10 devices out there.
I can't say for sure that it will change the tide of ever lowering PC sales - but it will spur interest on the part of the major OEMS and so I expect to see similar designs from Dell, HPE and Lenovo - who already have a dual screen offering in the Yoga Book.
So now we wait a year and see what happens.
First the Surface Pro was refreshed to Core i10 and a new Surface Pro X was announced that utilizes a jointly developed ARM processor with Qualcomm called the SQ1 with a 13" screen, LTE support and "flat pen" that can be stored in the keyboard. Think of it as a more next gen Surface Go.
Next was the Surface Laptop 3 which is now available in both 13.3 and 15" models with or without the Alcantra fabric keyboard. The 15" utilizes the AMD Epyc CPU.
All of the above units are available for pre-order today and begin shipping on or about Oct 22. Most likely - all will come with Windows 10 1909 release on them
But the show stoppers were definitely the two dual screen (don't call them foldable) devices the Neo and Duo.
The Neo is a dual screen device with 2 x 9" screens. It will utilize the next gen of Intel CPU/Graphics and has both a magnetically attached pen and keyboard. The keyboard can be used separately from the device or when placed on one of the screens will either A) show a trackpad below when placed near the "hinge" or B) an "wonder bar" that will provide contextual items depending on what app your in when placed at bottom of screen. The Demo was very slick.
The Neo is definitely a radical change to what we think about as a form factor and to me the fulfillment of the Courier concept of nearly 10 years ago. The Neo will also run a new version of Windows 10 called Windows 10X.
Windows 10x has also been called Windows Core or Windows Lite and it really designed for the transition to cloud based computing. While the big call out by some is the removal of Live Tiles from the Start Menu - the bigger change is the disengagement from many of the legacy Windows features/capabilities that have been dragged forward all the way from Windows XP. This should really improve performance, battery life and reduce the impact of updates.
The Duo is another dual screen device - with 2 x 5.6" screens - but this time it's based on the Qualcomm 855 CPU and will run Android. Yes Android. As I wrote about over a year ago - MS has made a big push with android based editions of many of their popular apps and has a tight partnership with Samsung.
Back then I created a MS app driven Android experience on an Nokia 6.2 - so from launcher to Office, OneDrive, etc an all MS experience to try it. Could you live with it - yeah - did it really change my mind about MS in the mobile space - No
Both the Neo and Duo are at least a year away. Some commentators have stated that MS really need the app community to start developing for Windows 10x and dual screen and so the announcements today where to generate interest.
With that said - there are no Windows 10x builds available to the Insider Community at all and so unless your an ISV that posts real interest in Neo for example we may never see it till Fall 2020.
The key to me with Neo and Duo is going to be execution and can MS actually bring both devices to market in a year. And even so will they be reasonably priced and stable.
It hard to believe that the Surface line is nearing it's 8th year of release now being first available in Oct of 2012. I've been pretty critical of the MS Surface line. I have never owned one and for many I know who have they have a real love/hate relationship with them.
MS often would shoot itself in the foot with buggy releases and/or updates, especially to firmware and even with a lot of focus of Windows 10 towards Surface, sometimes it ran it the worst.
But I have to once again applaud MS for pushing the envelope. Even though Windows has become a 2nd class citizen @ MS it's still the all important front end to all the backend Services like O365 and Azure. And yes there are some 900M+ Windows 10 devices out there.
I can't say for sure that it will change the tide of ever lowering PC sales - but it will spur interest on the part of the major OEMS and so I expect to see similar designs from Dell, HPE and Lenovo - who already have a dual screen offering in the Yoga Book.
So now we wait a year and see what happens.
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